Exoteric Vs Esoteric

[Thought Art]

What do these words mean to you?

Exoteric means information taught to the masses, while esoteric is specialized information for a small ground of people. I think teaching, or religion may have either exoteric or esoteric aspects to their teachings. 

I own the book 'esoteric encyclopedia of eternal knowledge' which I like to read. I had internalized my own meaning of esoteric, which mean wisdom known by a few or wisdom developed through personal introspection as many of Vernon Howards teachings teach that we must first focus on the inner working of our minds instead of following blindly exoteric teachings of the masses.

I had been reading some of the paragraphs after my Qigong sessions but today someone pointed out to me their interpretation of esoteric. It seemed to rub them the wrong way and brought up many religious meanings for them. That this book could not contain real esoteric knowledge because it was written down, and that esoteric is an open meaningless word. As, even a satanist group can have esoteric teachings. This made sense to me but made me second guess whether or not I should share these wisdom nuggets after my classes. 

Personally, I think Vernon Howards teachings line up nicely with Taoist philosophy so I personally know there isn't a problem... But, everyone has their own defenses etc. 

 It made me recontextualize and my initial idea of these readings I thought the tasty wisdom nuggets. I thought they were fun and refreshing and would go along with the Qigong nicely. However, after this morning I am leaving the book at home and am just going to stick to the Qigong. I think I am still learning the subtlties of how people have developed their operating systems. Best to focus on just teaching relaxation, and find a more specific group who wants to discuss other things. I will however consider making a study group of philosophy, spirituality, esoteric etc in the future.  

Edited August 15, 2021 by Thought Art